Healership Begins in Our Bodies
We’ve all had moments at work when we acted in ways that we later realized was unwise. All of us have painful memories of a few such incidents.
Sometimes we realize that we’re walking down the wrong path even as we’re doing it—yet we do it anyway, and later regret it.
“Healership requires us to investigate how these patterns and habits affect us, and how they influence the ways in which we show up to lead—and, indeed, how we show up as human beings.”
Often this is because we’re caught up in the pressures of the moment, or in the ubiquitous messages of I have to be super-productive and I need to hurry up, finish this, and get to the next item on my list.
This usually occurs when we’re not fully present, not in our bodies, and acting out of well-established patterns and habits. Instead of being present to the moment, we get caught in the momentum, which pushes us to react rather than to lead from a place of responsiveness and wisdom.
Instead, we need to pause, take a breath (or two), and be present in our bodies—to the person or people we’re with, to the fullness of the situation, and to what our body is telling us.
Think back to one such incident in your own career as a leader when you let habit, or momentum, or urgency push you in an unsound direction. Go through that incident now, step by step, letting it unfold in slow motion.
As you do, pay attention to what your body experiences at each moment. What shows up—tightness, heat, cold, fear, anger, constriction, release, restlessness, or something else—and where in your body does it appear?
In particular, pay attention to the moment or moments when you first sense in your body that things could be headed down the wrong track.
Now hit the pause button and stay with the sensations in your body. Notice all of these—physical, emotional, and otherwise.
Then ask yourself these questions:
What are these sensations telling me?
What if, at this moment, I had paused, paid attention to my body, and explored what it was telling me?
What if I had paused the ongoing interaction as well, even if only briefly, to better understand, be curious about, and evaluate these messages?
If I had done this, might I have acted differently? How?
What would have been the likely outcome of these alternative actions?
How would this pausing and self-reflecting have helped me to lead more effectively and wisely?
This presence and awareness are where the process of healing begins.
But they’re not where it ends. Healership means investigating our patterns and habits, where they come from, and how they show up in our hearts, minds, and especially our bodies.
Healership requires us to investigate how these patterns and habits affect us, and how they influence the ways in which we show up to lead—and, indeed, how we show up as human beings.
In particular, Healership urges us to look at how these patterns and habits may hold us back, limit our visions, narrow our range of options in our relationships, and thus reduce our overall ability to be effective leaders.
Healership also shows us how to metabolize the internal energies around these patterns and habits, so that they no longer become our default reactions. This makes us less likely to act in unsound or harmful ways—and it frees us up to lead more creatively, openly, and wisely.
This is the promise of Healership.